Dance Moms
Dance Moms is an unscripted reality television program. The show follows a group of "Moms" and their daughters, the latter performing in the world of young competitive dance as instructed by the controversial Abby Lee Miller. The program is largely filmed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the Abby Lee Dance Company. A spin-off, Dance Moms: Miami, premiered April 3, 2012, set at Stars Dance Studio, operated by Victor Smalley and Angel Armas.Dance Moms is produced by Collins Avenue Productions, and broadcast by Lifetime Television. The first season debuted on July 13, 2011, followed by a second season beginning January 10th, 2012. A third season began on January 1st, 2013, followed by a fourth season beginning 365 days later, in 2014. And followed by the fith season. About Set in Pittsburgh’s renowned Abby Lee Dance Company, owned and operated by notoriously demanding and passionate instructor Abby Lee Miller, “Dance Moms” follows children’s early steps on the road to stardom, and their doting mothers who are there for every rehearsal, performance and bow … all under the discerning eye of Miller. Presenting a powerful cast of characters known to raise eyebrows, the series immerses itself in the highs and lows surrounding competition season to deliver an intriguing and dramatic look at the cast’s frantic pursuit of the ultimate National Dance title. The series is centered on the devoted Miller, who runs her school with an iron tap shoe as she instructs her young and talented students, while also dealing with over-the-top mothers who go to great lengths to help their children’s dreams come true. “Dance Moms” poses the tough questions many ask about what really goes on behind the scenes in the fast-growing and controversial art of competitive dance. Constantly on edge from her strict discipline and at times harsh “my way or the highway” style of teaching, Miller's students and their mothers are pushed to the limit emotionally, physically, socially and, in some cases, financially as the students tirelessly rehearse every day for weekly dance competitions throughout the U.S. Some students and mothers in Miller’s universe buy in to her methods, while others crack under the pressure. Either way, “Dance Moms” uniquely captures this outrageous and dynamic interplay among teacher, student and parent as Miller commits herself to bring out the best in those students — and mothers — willing to dedicate themselves to be part of one of the best dance teams in the nation. Cast selection In an interview after the first season, Abby Lee Miller claimed that the production company interviewed "23 families to choose those mothers. The children were never auditioned." However, mom Christi Lukasiak claimed that Miller's statement was false. "The children absolutely auditioned, too. I have Chloe’s audition tapes saved on my computer." Abby later stated that the children merely sent in short videos that were "20 seconds of amazing," rather than the face-to-face interviews of the mothers. The Pyramid Nearly every week on the show, Abby Lee Miller uses a pyramid system to show her dancers and their mothers who she feels previously performed the best, and who needs to improve. The pyramid has been known to change every week. The pyramid became a subject of controversy among viewers because of its perceived negative aspect. Abby Lee Miller said it was not her method, but it was developed by the producers of the show. Ratings and Reception The 2011 series premiere drew slightly over 1 million viewers, a 70% increase over the previous time period average, including especially disproportionate increases among adult women. The final four episodes of the first season averaged 1.7 million total viewers, a further 70% increase. The third season premiere became the most watched broadcast episode of the series, with a total audience of 2.8 million.The first episode of the second season attracted an audience of 2.5 million viewers. Overall, season two averaged a 69% increase over season one in adult viewership, including a 72% increase among women aged 18 to 49. Already with Lifetime's youngest audience, the median age of viewers further dropped to 32 years during the second season. In 2012, Dance Moms was nominated for a Teen Choice Award in the Television/Reality category, losing to MTV's Punk'd. Criticisms *Verbal attacks on the children by Abby and rival mothers, including attacks on their personal characters *Deceptive distortions of real people, with the production intent to turn them into stereotyped, exaggerated stock-characters in what is a program substantially infused with creative fiction. *Enduring, life-long damage inflicted on the reputations of minors. *Stress and workload. By Season 2, the young performers spent many hours in dance classes, rehearsals, extra filming, at competitions, as well as lengthy travel time. Shooting of the 28 episodes occurred in approximately 26 weeks of the year; this includes each girl generally learning one or two new dances per episode. Additionally, the girls frequently make other celebrity appearances, such as at commercial ticket events ("Master Classes" and "Meet-and-Greets"). *Performance pressure, particularly involving Abby's instruction techniques Liana M. Nobile focuses on some of the initial points, in a passage from a paper entitled "The Kids Are Not Alright: An Open Call for Reforming the Protections Afforded to Reality Television’s Child Participants": Trivia *Early in the show's conception, it was called Just Dance, with the idea of being a documentary, about five different girls from five different cities would compete, and then meet in a finals. *Abby has stated that early plans were to make the show 85% about the moms, 10% the kids, and 5% the dancing, with Abby not even in the equation. *According to Abby, the first dancers John Corella suggested to other producers were Paige, Maddie, Chloe, Mackenzie and Nia; Abby had considered Brooke too old when she had sent pictures to John.Chloe similarly relates that Brooke was selected following her sister. *The cast expected only six episodes to be produced. After they were filmed, they were surprised when Lifetime ordered more. *Thirty families were initially interviewed, twenty-seven from Abby's studio, and Cathy was the first person to be cast. *According to Abby after Season 1, the girls were not being paid, because then they would be considered professionals. However, at the time of filming the early third season episode Out With the Old, In With the New, Abby claimed on Twitter that the moms were on strike to seek better pay and perks; Kelly later echoed this claim regarding the actual nature of the parking lot sit-in dispute. Kelly's 2014 lawsuit against Collins Avenue includes a copy of changes in her Collins Avenue contract, including various forms of compensation to be paid to the Hylands as a group (including $6,935.00 per regular episode); a fraction of which was allotted directly to Paige and Brooke, at $1,050.00 to each dancer per regular episode in the season. **The Pennsylvania 2012 Child Labor Act requires payment to child performers into a trust fund or scholarship, at 15% of the minor's parent's or guardian's total compensation. **An article in Dance Studio Life gives the differing positions of many competition directors on when they consider child dancers appearing on television to be professionals. *When possible, dances are often performed and filmed twice at competitions, with only one performance judged; although with editing, this can sometimes lead to strange angles. Repeat performances have been especially common with group dances since Season 3. *In 2014, Abby's remaining four dancers from the first season averaged over one million followers on Instagram. Paige, Brooke and Kendall also had over one million followers apiece. *It is Abby's stated opinion that it is the editors that have the true power in creating the show, and "not the cameraman, not the producers, not me, not the kids, not the moms. We shoot on three cameras, we shoot six days a week and there’s over 100 hours of footage." *In 2014, Abby stated she was shocked when she discovered the show is airing in 110 countries, rather than the 30 she had previously believed. Related Shows A sister show is Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition, a panel-judged elimination contest series. Another related show by Lifetime and Collins Avenue is set to debut in June, 2014, entitled Abby's Studio Rescue. A show called Ice Moms was going to be in production, but they never decided to produce it. It was going to be focusing on figure skaters and their demanding mothers. And in October 2012, Collins Avenue Productions and Lifetime announced preliminary work on yet another Dance Moms franchise, in addition to the two located in Pittsburgh and Miami; this project also seems an abandoned project. Abby's Studio Rescue is scheduled to debut on Lifetime, June 17th, 2014. A British version of the show, Dance Mums, has also been announced, and is scheduled to premiere in 2014 on Lifetime (possibly only in Britain). Dance Mums will feature Jennifer Ellison, and will be produced by ITV's "factual arm" Shiver, rather than Collins Avenue. Page Content Credit Category:Filmography